I'm gonna start my own thread here...I kinda hi-jacked BEnglish's so I don't want to give him any more reason to put out a "hit" on me!
Plus, I think we have different issues.
Anyhow, I'll just repost here what's going on for me so you don't have to flip back and forth:
Been chasing a vibration problem between 40-50 and 65+mph. It seems to be in the rear end since the vibration can be felt in the seat and, when I have something in the bed I can watch, it will shake the load with the vibration. At 40-50 mph the shake is more of a bounce and 65+ the bounce starts to pick up frequency on up to just a vibration in the floorboard. I also just replaced my tires with BFG ATs (285/75/15) about 6k miles ago.
I've recently been following up on the bad tires theory and had an axle and frame shop take a look at it. They said(and showed me) out of round tires.
Then, I got a second opinion the next day at a "name brand" shop. Had them dismount all tires from rims and check wheels for bend or whatever. Remounted and balanced and found no bad wheels but a couple tires were minimally out of round according to their standards but, indeed, out of round. They also inspected the driveline, wheels, and whatever else and found nothing loose...in fact everything was in very good shape.
Well, got a chance to get down to the dealer I bought the tires from today. Talked to the tech and he took a ride, came back and put the truck up on the frame jack and removed and checked all the tires/wheels on road force balancer. He agreed that there were two tires that were slightly out of round and replaced them. Took it for a spin real quick and all is well.
NOW, the tire shop is about 40 min from my house so I had plenty of opportunity to check the balance of the new tires. As I kept going, THE VIBRATION CAME BACK!! I'm tellin ya, I had a chance to check the vibration between 40-50 and again at 65+mph RIGHT AS I DROVE OFF THE SHOP LOT and it was nill...NO VIBRATION! The further I drove, the more the vibration came back! As I drove down the final stretch of 65+mph road 5min from my house, the vibration was in full effect, just as before.
Could this vibration have been "reset" when the truck was lifted by the frame lift at the tire shop? I'm really leaning towards control arm bushings at this point...whadduya think? There is play in the steering but, with the help of a friend, the steering box was identified as the weak link. I have been reading old threads of guys who thought the vibration was in the rear but ended up being first signs of death wobble. The steering wheel does NOT shake when the vibration appears. I've had nothing but steering issues ever since I bought this truck 25k ago and have replaced:
-ball joints
-all tie-rods/drag links
-aftermarket trackbar(DT ProFab)
-steering stabilizer
-both front and rear driveshafts fully rebuilt and balanced
I'm thinking caster shimmy from weak control arm bushings but need input. The way I understand it, there really isn't a way to check them other than pull 'em out.
Thoughts?
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